This article explores epistemological and ontological accounts of Country’s mentorship among young Indigenous Australian knowledge holders, creatives, entrepreneurs, changemakers, and advocates. Using a qualitative decolonising race theoretical lens, the research team adapted and explored multi-directional, more-than-human understandings of the human–Country mentorship relationship to reflect young mob experiences of enacting and embodying Country. The findings highlight Country’s agency, sentience, and authority, whereby young mob shared how they were guided by, sustained by, and obligated to Country. This research honours Country as a knowledge holder and mentor. The research team aims to be transformative by showing new ways to understand Country and both-ways mentorship relationships with young mob and Country. The article is a unique contribution to the research field, as mentorship literature often fails to effectively unpack Indigenous Australian relationality with Country, problematises young mob, and is contextually bound to individual programs, singular communities, or cohorts. By giving voice to Country as a mentor, the research team aims to disrupt Western hegemonic power relations in dominant mentorship frameworks and challenge mentorship theory, practice, and policy. We hope this article encourages geographers and others to take Indigenous ways of knowing, being, doing and becoming more seriously.
Globally, road fatalities affect wildlife populations and ecosystems, leading to ecological imbalances, economic losses, and safety hazards for both animals and humans. However, the emotional toll on humans is less well understood. This research explores tourists’ responses to roadkill, using emotional geography as the overarching framework, and focusing on the island state of Tasmania in Australia. Tasmania is known for its diverse and abundant native wildlife, as well as the unfortunate distinction of having Australia’s highest rate of wildlife fatalities caused by vehicle collisions, commonly referred to as roadkill. A mixed-method questionnaire asked respondents to share emotions, and we then considered their relationships to socio-demographic attributes. Around 97% of respondents encountered roadkill during their stays, and 63% encountered live animals on or near the road. Tourists identified sadness as the most felt emotion when confronted with the consequences of wildlife–vehicle collisions. Anger and disgust were also experienced, primarily because of the unpleasant sight of roadkill and the realisation that animals suffered. Women reported being more negatively affected than men. Tourists who had visited to see wildlife were more affected than those who had not. Analysis leads to the conclusion that unplanned, sporadic, unexpected, and confronting encounters with dead animals detract from the tourism experience for most, especially encounters with wildlife was anticipated as a positive experience on tour. Such findings have wider implications for those working in the tourism industry in mainland Australia, Canada, and South Africa, where roadkill is also problematic.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, most research has examined specific temporal snapshots. This study diverges by offering a comprehensive analysis of COVID-19 incidence across the Spanish provinces throughout six distinct waves of the pandemic. Using spatial exploratory techniques, we find no single pandemic; rather, there have been waves. Significant differences in the spatial distribution of cases and deaths across six waves show that each has unique characteristics. Homogeneous conclusions cannot be drawn at the national level. Notable regional differences in the pandemic’s spatial distribution suggest a need for subnational responses, reflecting variations in climate, economic dynamism, sectoral specialisation, and socio-health resources. Spatial regression models show that the main determinants of COVID-19 incidence depend on stage. Traditional factors commonly associated with epidemiological studies, such as temperature, exerted significant influence during the pandemic’s onset. However, as mobility restrictions were enforced and vaccination campaigns were rolled out, economic conditions, and especially levels of economic activity, emerged as increasingly significant determinants.
This study explores the outcomes of internal migration in Indonesia, specifically focusing on the intersecting themes of ethnicity, informality, and entrepreneurial migration. We examine how Javanese migrants perceive the benefits and challenges of their migration and subsequent engagement in the informal sector as self-employed migrants/small business owners in and around Kupang’s traditional markets. We use a sequential mixed-methods approach (a household survey with a structured interview [n=344] and in-depth/semi-structured interviews [n=28] in 2020). Drawing on Hein de Haas’s framework on the internal dynamics of migration, we explore the multifaceted outcomes of entrepreneurial migration beyond the economic consequences addressed in similar studies. The perceived positive impacts of this migration include sufficient income to cover daily needs and children’s education, as well as new remittances and employment opportunities for communities in Java and Kupang. However, these broadly empowering trends were set against the experience of those migrants who, because of less informal sector labour experience, could not easily negotiate their settlement in a new host environment, leading to varied adverse consequences. Ultimately, then, the article highlights the importance of social networks, knowledge, and reciprocity in supporting the successful establishment of entrepreneurial migrants in emerging destinations.
This commentary further explores the revolutionary possibilities of love using a therapeutic wayfinding analysis of New Zealand’s new Matariki public holiday and the author’s hamefarin/homecoming in mid-2022. Wayfinding underwrites our personal and disciplinary journeywork of futuring and reinforces the importance of rest, repair, awakening, and articulating our “next normal.”